Monday, December 02, 2013
Blackberry CEO Says Company Is "Very Much Alive"

BlackBerry has written another open letter aimed at its corporate customers to convince them that the company is "very much alive".

The letter to Blackberry's enterprise customers and partners is
John S. Chen's (CEO) response to the noise in the market about BlackBerry and its transitionary period, in a bid to stop enterprise subscribers from jumping ship to rival platforms.

"We want to set the story straight about BlackBerry in the Enterprise, both for our existing customers and for those about to implement BYOD and MDM," the letter reads. "We are very much alive, thank you."

Chen added that the comany is no longer for sale, as it recently entered into an agreement to receive a strategic investment from Fairfax Financial and other institutional investors.

"Our competitors want you to think that BES only manages BlackBerry devices, and that we are somehow more expensive than other MDMs. This is false," he said.

BlackBerry has suffered a drastic loss of market share to Apple's iPhone and devices powered by Google's Android software. Its new smartphones have so far failed to win back customers, as Chen acknowledged in the letter.

"We know that BlackBerry devices are not for everyone. That's OK," he said.

"The investments you've made in BlackBerry infrastructure and solutions are secure. I will keep the lines of communication open as we navigate through this transition."